Trading Jimmy Graham is not the answer

Jimmy Graham was strangely absent from Seattle’s offense in the first two games, but he looked really good against the Titans Colts, as a result the discussion around the veteran tight end has centered around trading him to get Luke Willson more snaps. But trading Graham is not the answer, or even part of the answer, for the Seahawks’ offensive woes.

In the first three games, Graham was only targeted a handful of times and was absolutely awful when attempting to pick-up blocks. While he wasn’t the only one struggling offensively, his dropped pass against San Francisco highlighted the offensive ineffiency that he had been early in. But he’s only been a small part of the blocking issues upfront, he’s not the reason the offensive line did this (below) in Tennessee.

Today in Seattle's o-line:

Russell Wilson picks up the ball after a bad snap and what he sees looks like a war zone w bodies on the ground pic.twitter.com/XxttDjowLD

The offensive line issues are not going to be fixed if you trade Jimmy Graham; the failure up front is systemic and are not limited to one player. It’s the entire group that’s the issue and any changes that need to be made will have to be made across the entire line…or made with its coach.

In fact, it could be argued that trading Graham would be disasterous for the offense. Losing the veteran would take away a dangerous option for quarterback Russell Wilson in the middle of the field. As the duo showed us against Indianapolis and Tennessee, Graham will make plays in the middle of the field that open up the offense and take defenders away from the outside receivers.

Yes, Willson has made explosive in the middle of the field as well; but they need Graham because he’s a little faster and bigger than Willson. If Graham is gone, then the third string tight end is now your second tight end and that means he’s going to see more snaps…which will (probably) worsen the blocking on the line while taking a major pass catching threat out of the middle of the field.